Getting Caught In LaMonica’s Machines

John LaMonica is one of those artists that I am so very keen on whether working solo or with various projects and collaborations. He’s been on the blog as part of the excellent Robots Don’t Sleep project, a collab with Pavel Dovgal, and one with Rumpistol but this is the first we’ll be featuring him all on his own.

These three songs below are from Machines, a 5 track EP focusing on LaMonica’s wonderfully smoothe vocals and adding some absolutely beautiful production to boot. The fact that LaMonica (Soundcloud, Facebook) is more than just a vocalist as this production is plain to see, just absolutely puts this over the top and puts him in the same group of male producers/vocalists like Koda and Until The Ribbon Breaks that I’ll follow for their talent behind microphone and DAW.

From the opening track, you get the production chops to go along with the vocals in a nice minimal but future garage sounding accompaniment to his vocals. Dark and dank this could be anything out of SBTRKT’s catalogue, and when LaMonica’s vocals break in, you absolutely know you’re in his world now, and nobody else’s. The percussive drum patterns juxtapose the beauty of LaMonica’s voice and airy synths in the background to give you one of those feelings like you get something new from the track with each successive listen. And you do, believe me.

Flowing into the 2nd track, one beautiful and super chill track featuring him on piano and then to an interlude you know you’re not just getting the same thing 5 tracks over. When the fourth and fifth tracks come in and conclude you’re just not ready for it to end. These 5 tracks pack such a punch and they’re all free to you, which is the best part.